Three Hundred Games & Pastimes - complete online book

A Book Of Suggestions For Children's Games And Employments.

and the game is for each player to complete a set of four. You do not, as in " Old Maid," select one from the cards that are offered, face downwards, but each player hands whatever card he likes to the next player, who is bound to accept it. Directly a player has a set of four complete he lays the cards on the table, either very stealthily or with a bang, whichever he likes. Immediately a set is laid on the table (or directly the other players notice it) all other cards have to be laid there too. The player who is last in laying them down is Pig. The game is played for as many rounds as you like, the player who was last the fewest times being the winner. The word Pig alters with each round. The last player to lay down his cards in the second round is not merely Pig but Little Pig ; in the third, Big Pig ; in the fourth, Mother (or Father) Pig ; in the fifth, Grandmother (or Grandfather) Pig; in the sixth, Ancestral Pig ; in the seventh, Venerable Pig; in the eighth, Primeval Pig; in the ninth, Crackling.

This game is utterly foolish, but it can lead to shouts of laughter. It has been founded on an old-fashioned card game called " Mr. Punch." The first thing required is a pack of plain cards on which should be written the names of articles of food and clothing, household utensils, and other domestic and much advertised things : such, for example, as a frock-coat, a round of beef, a foot-warmer, a box of pills. A story, somewhat on the lines of that which follows, must then be prepared and copied into a note-book. The company take their places and the cards are handed round. These should be held face downwards. When all is ready one of the players reads the story, pausing at each blank for the player whose turn comes next to fill it in by calling out whatever is on his uppermost card. No matter how often the game is played (provided the cards are re-shuffled) the unexpected always happens, and it is usually so absurd as to be quite too much for a room all ready for laughter. The number